The Seattle Seahawks need to make changes this offseason and one could be to replace Pete Carroll. While this is unlikely to happen as Carroll has a lot of power within the organization, maybe Carroll decides to step down. Should the Seahawks hire a defensive-minded coach, like Carroll, to replace him?
The entire NFC West has changed coaches since Carroll came to Seattle in 2010 except the Seahawks. The current group of coaches in the division all come from offensive backgrounds and they seem to be good at directing good offenses now.
But Seattle over the last decade has made a point of trying to zig when others zag. And the argument could be made that a way to improve their current place in the NFC West (which is last, of course) is to hire a coach that knows how to stop the offenses they face 6 times a year instead of trying to join the arms race of getting much better offensively and then hoping the defense is pretty good too.
5 defensive-minded coaches who could replace Pete Carroll for the Seattle Seahawks
To be fair, the Seahawks need a whole new coaching staff (except for maybe special teams coach Larry Izzo) as coordinators Ken Norton, Jr. and Shane Waldron appear to not be good at their jobs. Waldron seems to be a colossal mistake of a hire as offensive coordinator this past offseason. Norton, Jr. has led a mediocre Seattle defense for four years now. (Yes, Seattle is top-ten in points allowed this year but they also let teams eat up 35 minutes of clock a game and can’t get teams off the field on third down.)
The good thing is, whoever and whenever Seattle hires a new head coach that coach will want to bring in their own coordinators and people they trust. So removing Carroll means removing Waldron and Norton, Jr. too. But Carroll is also VP of Football Operations so he might need to step down as coach instead of simply being terminated.
Here are five coaches who could replace Carroll.
Luke Fickell
I am not smart enough to run an NFL but if I was, one of the first offers I would make would be an attempt to lure Luke Fickell to coach the team. I will have another good college coach listed here in just a bit but there is a difference between Fickell and the one that follows.
Fickell has succeeded in a state with the long shadow of Ohio State football. In fact, this year he has so far eclipsed OSU. Fickell coaches the University of Cincinnati and in the last two years his teams have not lost a regular-season game. This year Cincinnati has a good chance of making the college football playoff.
Fickell has been the head coach at Cincinnati since 2017 but before that he was a defensive coordinator or a defensive position coach. When he became a head coach his defenses didn’t suddenly become secondary to him. He has made Cincinnati’s units into some of the best in the country. His defenses not only are stout up the middle against the run but they create turnovers and are ultra-aggressive in the secondary. They look a lot like the way the Legion of Boom was set up.
In 2020, Fickell’s defense was in the top-15 nationally in five categories but it isn’t just because his defense out-talents other teams. Remember, he coaches in a state where OSU (and Fickell is a former player and coach at the university) where OSU would get the prized recruits. But Fickell uses whatever scheme gets the best out of the players he has and makes his players better individually and as a team.
This is the mark of a great coach. It’s one thing to have good athletes but getting the most out of them is the key and Fickell would do that for the Seahawks. Plus, he wouldn’t have to worry about recruiting. Also, Fickell’s players love to play for him and that cannot be undervalued.
Dennis Allen
Dennis Allen is one of two former NFL head coaches I have on this list. He was the coach of the Raiders from 2012 through 2014 and the Raiders were terrible. They also had little talent and anybody coaching them would have lost. I mean, the Raiders haven’t truly been relevant since the early 2000s, right?
Allen has proven to be a very good defensive coordinator, however. He has been this for the Saints since 2015. New Orleans used to be so offensive-heavy yet still successful that it detracted from anyone noticing the defense wasn’t good. But for the last several seasons the Saints have been pretty good because of their defense. The main reason for this is the coaching of Allen.
In fact, New Orleans has gone from a Drew Brees-will-save-us team to one where the defense wins games. Brees was still decent his last few years before he retired after the 2020 season but New Orleans was among the best teams in the NFC because of its defense.
The Saints are 5-6 in 2021 but 18th in scoring offense. The defense is 12th in scoring even though the team has struggled with injuries this year and lost its best pass rusher, Trey Hendrickson, to free agency in the offseason. New Orleans is first in yards-allowed-per-rush (3.4) and 10th in quarterback-rating-allowed (88.6).
In 2020, the Saints were fourth in QBR-allowed and fifth in yards-per-rush and fifth in points-allowed-per-game. New Orleans was third in forcing turnovers in 2020 and is 11th in 2021. Unlike the Seahawks defense (28th in forced turnovers this year), Allen’s defenses change games. And hiring Allen would help change the future of the Seahawks to a positive one compared to 2021.
Pat Fitzgerald
In 2010, Seahawks owner Paul Allen turned to a college coach to take over the franchise. That coach was, of course, Pete Carroll. People may forget that in 2009, Seattle was a lost franchise. Carroll came in and made tons of changes. Obviously, some credit should go to general manager John Schneider as well. Seattle has been good for most of a decade. Let’s not forget that.
Fitzgerald is a bit different from Carroll. He doesn’t have NFL head coaching experience. But what he does do is get the best out of his players every single year. He has a lot of trouble recruiting at Northwestern because the school is one that values academics over sports and maybe every school should. But while recruits want to go to Alabama and Clemson or Ohio State, Fitzgerald has to do with what he can with the players he is lucky to get to come to Northwestern.
Fitzgerald has been the coach at his alma mater since 2006. But he is still only 47 years old. If Fitzgerald wants to keep coaching, he has a bunch of years left to do so. Between 1960 and 2005, Northwestern had eight winning seasons. Since 2006, Northwestern has had nine.
Fitzgerald was a great linebacker in college and has coached linebackers and defensive backs in college. He has no real ties to the NFL, though. This is what makes him a wild card coach for the Seahawks. Fitzgerald wouldn’t come in with a bunch of ego. He would just get the best out of the players he has. Seattle would need a general manager who knows how to acquire players but Fitzgerald would know the college game so well that he would be able to give great input on who Seattle should draft and the Seahawks need better drafts to build for the future.
Joe Woods
Joe Woods is ready for a head coaching gig. He has been a defensive coordinator in four seasons in the NFL. He got kind of screwed by what the Denver Broncos did to the defensive personnel in 2018 in Wood’s second year as DC for Denver. In his first of 2017, the Broncos were third in yards allowed but 22nd in points. After Denver changed the team a bit, Woods’ defense fell to 22nd in yards allowed. But here is the thing: They moved up to 10th in points allowed. So Woods adjusted based on his personnel.
Woods has been the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns for the last two years. In 2020, the Browns were 14th in yards allowed and 21st in points. This season, however, Cleveland is 7th in yards allowed and third in points allowed. Woods’ defense either gets better or he gets the absolute best out of the players he is given.
Woods has coached mostly defensive backs when he wasn’t a coordinator. This is a lot like Pete Carroll before he became a head coach in the 1990s. Seattle with Carroll was built from the back end of the defense up and the way NFL offenses are made now, lots of movement and speed, building from the back up is a good thing. Plus, he would know how best to use Jamal Adams.
I get that Browns fans who are used to not being successful overreact to anything negative that happens to their team. The Patriots scored 45 points on the Browns in week 10. Cleveland seems to always fail to meet expectations as a franchise. Since week 10, Cleveland has allowed 26 points total. One of those games was to the Ravens when the Brown picked Lamar Jackson off 4 times. Woods schemed a plan that contained Jackson and few teams do that.
Woods could take over the defense and make it better for the Seahawks. He likely wouldn’t meddle much with the offense so the key would be who he hires as his offensive coordinator. But if he makes the right choice, Seattle would be better in 2022 than they are in 2021.
Dan Quinn
Let’s bring Dan Quinn home! Quinn was a very successful defensive line coach in the NFL from 2003 to 2010 (Quinn was with Seattle in 2009 and 2010) and then left to go coach for a college team for two years. But he returned to Seattle to be the defensive coordinator in 2013 and in two seasons as DC with the Seahawks he led arguably the greatest defense in NFL history.
Yes, Quinn had great players to work with but he still put those players in the best positions to succeed, something Seattle’s current DC seems to have no clue how to do. Quinn left to become the Atlanta Falcons head coach in 2015 and was there until 2020. Quinn took Atlanta to one Super Bowl.
Quinn’s first three seasons as a head coach were far more successful than his last three. But Atlanta also suffered losses of good players in free agency and key players got hurt. Still, his overall record was 43-42.
But here’s the thing with Quinn. He wasn’t just a good DC because of his players. He took over the Dallas Cowboys defense this season and has made them much better even though Dallas has suffered some injuries along the defensive line.
Last year, the Cowboys were 26th in quarterback-rating-allowed (100.4), this year they are 3rd (79.8). Last year, Dallas ranked 26th in quarterback hits, this year they are 5th. In 2020, Dallas allowed 29.6 points a game, 28th in the NFL but in 2021 Dallas in 10th-best in the NFL at 22.3.
Quinn does all this while not having the greatest talent but molding his scheme to the players he has. With Seattle, while he would oversee the entire team and likely make a much better hire at offensive coordinator than Waldron, Quinn could help re-work the defense and make them great again. And a great defense wins championships.